After Hours

'After Hours' is a minor Scorcese film, the story of a man who heads out one night on a hot date with a virtual stranger. But he loses his money, the girl turns out to be downright odd and everything soon runs totally out of control. It's a nice conceit, but the plot feels contrived and stretched, while the film is never consistently funny: in fact, it feels more amateurish than any of Scorcese's other works. Arguably, this sort of concept works better when there's a conspiracy involved, as in Fincher's 'The Game': otherwise, the hapless hero is left a victim of outrageously bad luck and his own stupidity. There are entertaining moments, but compared with 'Raging Bull' and 'The King of Comedy', which Scorcese also made around this time, it makes a very poor cousin.

I was 19 when I saw AFTER HOURS in 1985. Back then, I thought it was funny as hell. But as a 54-year-old man, I can appreciate it even more. In my 3.5 decades between my viewings, I've been to New York City many times, read Henry Miller, become familiar with the doo-wop songs on the barroom's jukebox, and (unfortunately) dated women who reminded me entirely too much of Marcy, Julie, and Gail. On the other hand: to date, I've been lucky enough to never be stalked by a vigilante lynch mob (unless you count Facebook). And the Mister Softee truck was a riotous touch! I agree with the reviewers who call AFTER HOURS the most underrated Scorsese film. It features elements of what already him a great director, as well as glimpses into the future career of this master filmmaker.

This is a terrible film, an attempt, apparently, to cash in on the Stephen King audience. A sane guy is suddenly surrounded by insane people, chased throughout an utterly Soho district of New York, and deposited, after a horrendous night, miraculously at his office building door. There is the obligatory traffic madness, nudity, profanity, violence, drugs, homosexuality, and a wholly unbelievable story. In short, this is an art film, worthy of critical acclaim. Saving the film from total disaster was the leading man, who did his best to emulate Richard Benjamin. The others in the cast are forgettable

Such a dark, ironic and uncomfortably funny string of events plus a large helping of bizarre, paranoid and unpredictable characters have never before been forged into one story. The film follows Paul Hacket (Griffin Dunne) on a date from hell, where from square one it all goes horribly wrong. As we move on, the mood winds up into a frenzied nightmare as this poor mans' plight goes from bad to worse. "All I want to do is go home" he says, running for his life from an angry mob. The story isn't complex, which you may think could bore, but the characters are so delightfully wacky that you can't help but be transfixed. We've all had bad days when we've said "Phew! What a nightmare!" - well forget it, until you've taken half the knocks this guy does, you've had but a walk in the park. Don't just rent this movie - buy it.

One of my tops. Classic NYC and holds up. The story is so something I'll never let go. Under rated.

After Hours, originally a Columbia thesis script by Joseph Minion tells the story of Paul Hackett's crazy adventure in Soho. A friend described After Hours as a movie he always saw the cover for at the video store back in the day, and always thought it was a silly 80s comedy. It wasn't till years later he realized it was a Scorsese movie. The movie came in the WB Box Set released with Goodfellas, Mean Streets, and a few other of the filmmakers lesser known, earlier films. I was happy when I finally popped After Hours into the DVD player, it is a darkly funny, well written downtown New York Adventure. Hackett meets Marcy in a café, who passes her number off to him. Clearly a bored word processor seeking adventure, Hackett calls Marcy, who invites him over, he peers at his watch, 11:30pm, and his night has just begun. So begin's his crazy adventure, meeting peculiar character after peculiar character. The theme of the movie is that the whole world is different after midnight, from the people who inhabit it, to the rules which govern it. Hackett has lost his money, and is so far from his home uptown, that he is virtually stuck in Soho. It's a fun movie, and worth seeing, if just for what Scorsese was up to between Raging Bull and The Last Temptation of Christ.

This might be the worst Scorsese film I have ever seen. I have a feeling that because this might be one of his least accessible films to current audiences, people just call it his most 'underrated'. In fact, there's a reason it isn't talked about much, because it is rubbish. Here Scorsese seems like he's built up his reputation strongly enough so he can just put out any old tosh and audiences will praise it to high heaven just because Scorsese directed it. The directing is lazy, the plot at first glance seems interesting enough but Scorsese does his best to bring it down and ends up with a stretched, repetitive, sequence of encounters with various deadbeats, and lowlife losers, which we are apparently supposed to show some interest in. Griffin Dunne is just to waspy and bland for us to invest any time in caring for his character. The film just doesn't stop attempting to prepare us for tension and excitement and building up these encounters and situations before resulting in a huge anti-climax and more stretched out, aimless roads to nowhere.

I once remembered seeing a movie featuring the actor who played the ghost from American Werewolf In London , a couple of leather boys snogging in a diner and production standards that belonged in a TV movie . I can't remember why I hated it but I sure did remember hating it . Anyway I flicked through the TV guide wondering what was on and saw that there was a black comedy from Martin Scorsese that was given four stars . Hey Scorsese I'm not going to miss this . so I switched over the channel to watch AFTER HOURS and within a few minutes I realised that this was the movie I hated from all those years ago Okay I agree that this is a quirky film . However it's also a deeply unsatisfying one that wouldn't get half as much acclaim if the directing credits read " Alan Smithee " . Paul goes on a date , so far so good but after that the story degenerates into an episodic tale hinging on some quite unbelievable coincidences . You might have to suspend disbelief watching the BBC comedy classic ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE , another comedy where the humour revolves around coincidence but not too much , and at least ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE is genuinely funny , alas AFTER HOURS soon loses all credibility , and I'm sorry to point out that it's far from being an amusing film . Try not to lynch me for saying this but it looks like it was directed by someone who has just left film school ten minutes ago Along with BRINGING OUT THE DEAD this is Martin Scorsese's least impressive movie

Martin Scorsese's After Hours is so unique and interwoven that repeat viewings are almost required. The film is completely over the top in every respect, but that is part of what makes it so compelling. Funny, smart, and imaginative. Griffin Dunne is brilliant.

While reading the Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer in a coffee shop, the bored word processor Paul Hackett (Griffe Dunne) meets Marcy Franklin (Rosanna Arquette), and she gives her phone number to him. Close to midnight, Paul decides to call her and she invites him to visit her in the loft of her friend, the sculptor Kiki Bridges (Linda Fiorentino), in Soho. Paul gets a taxi and loses his money through the open window of the cab. Paul arrives in Kiki's place, where begins his surrealistic adventure along the night. I do not know how many times I have seen this movie along my life, maybe ten times, but it still attracts me and now I have just seen it for the first time on DVD. I love it and it is one of my favorite cult movies. The surrealistic 'saga' of Paul Hackett trapped in Soho without means to return home is fantastic and fascinate me. The cast, direction, soundtrack and camera are excellent. I believe it is the best role and performance of Griffin Dunne in his career. My vote is nine. Title (Brazil): 'Depois de Horas' ('After Hours (literally)')